Research just posted on Sciencedaily.com from UCLA titled "Scientists ID Compounds That Target Amyloid Fibrils in Alzheimer's, Other Brain Diseases" highlights a newly published research project that describes green tea and turmeric helping to preserve the life of neurons. It is known that by "binding" toxic proteins that would eventually kill the neurons and turn them into amyloid fibrils, turmeric/curcumin helps keep those neurons alive-in petri dishes, not in humans. It turns out that green tea does this also. Green tea has the tremendous advantage, in addition, of crossing the blood-brain-barrier in humans. (Thank you Kathrynne from Ask the Nutritionist). It means that by drinking green tea it is possible that these beneficial polyphenol molecules can go directly to our brains instead of being caught in the blood-brain-barrier which keeps out many potentially helpful substances like turmeric/curcumin.

What does this mean for the Parkinson's community? It means FINALLY we will be able to have access to a product of nature-green tea-how hard is that?-that this research report shows can slow down the progression of diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Drugs will eventually do this but it takes a billion dollars and many years to bring a product to market and there is no available drug that has been shown to slow down the progression of Parkinson's. Green tea is available now and we can finally be proactive. We have waited many years and I am so excited to finally have a research report that validates the benefit of green tea. Dr. Oz had recommended green tea for its many other beneficial qualities on his show a while back and he specifically recommended matcha tea which I had never heard of. Matcha tea is actually ground up green tea leaves with ten times the potency of steeped tea leaves.